Merrick Garland: Biden’s appointment as attorney general signals strong contrast to Trump in the Justice Department

Merrick Garland: Biden’s appointment as attorney general signals strong contrast to Trump in the Justice Department

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The complaint in February 2020, while Trump reveled in the Senate’s absolution of impeachment charges in the U.S. House and prepared to fire people who testified against him, offered only one episode of his persistent disregard for the rules of justice.

These transgressions, of course, were eclipsed this week by the rampant violence he instigated on Capitol Hill. Still, Thursday’s televised painting of President-elect Joe Biden featuring Judge Merrick Garland to be the next attorney general provided a striking contrast to Trump’s style and demonstrated that a restorative agenda has begun.

“You are not going to work for me,” said Biden. “You are not the attorney for the president or the vice president. Your loyalty is not to me. It is with the law, the constitution.”

For his part, Garland referred to the destruction of the pro-Trump mob while Electoral College votes were being counted and said: “The rule of law is not just a lawyer phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy. The essence of the rule of law is that similar cases are treated in the same way, that there is no one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends and one for enemies. “

While Garland, 68, spoke of aspirations for integrity and neutrality to refute Trump’s standard, his voice was filled with emotion. The last time he had so much visibility on the national scene was in March 2016, when President Barack Obama nominated him for a seat on the Supreme Court that opened after Minister Antonin Scalia’s sudden death. The Republican-controlled Senate blocked action on the appointment of Garland, a U.S. appeal judge since 1997, and ended up reserving the seat for Trump to fill.

Since taking office four years ago, Trump has sought to use the law to punish opponents and reward his friends. He ridiculed the justice system at every step, mocked the judges and essentially declared that the law is what he says it is. This continued with last month’s series of pardons for its political allies – and its consideration of forgiving itself.

But Trump’s false assertions and attacks on democratic values ​​were only the prelude to his current lie that he was re-elected in November. He encouraged thousands of his supporters to arrive in Washington this week.

Trump asking advisers and lawyers about the power of self-forgiveness

Biden referred to Trump’s disdain for democracy and the importance of a neutral Department of Justice. He and Garland cited post-Watergate reforms in the 1970s, designed to restore confidence in the Department of Justice and prevent a president from interfering with day-to-day investigations.

Trump had publicly harassed his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, calling him “weak” and “besieged”. Trump called the U.S. justice system a “joke motive.” He kept up the pressure on his second attorney general, William Barr, who took office in February 2019 and resigned last month.

Trump’s February 2020 remark about being “the chief of police” came as he sought a light sentence for his friend and political strategist Roger Stone, convicted of lying under oath to Congress and threatening a witness. (Trump forgave Stone last month.)

Trump constantly tried to intervene in the affairs of the Department of Justice, the FBI and U.S. prosecutors, as well as in the investigation of Special Attorney Robert Mueller about the interference in the 2016 elections in Russia.

Watergate Spectrum

For the past four years, Trump critics have compared their actions to the control of Watergate and President Richard Nixon over the Department of Justice. Nixon resigned in 1974 after trying to cover up his role in the 1972 invasion at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate building.

But Trump’s attitude was more systemic than episodic. Instead of defending American democracy, he presented himself as an autocrat who wants absolute power.

Trump praised, then scoffed at Barr. A look at the attorney general's tumultuous term.

Still, post-Watergate reforms in the Justice Department were in the air when Garland said on Thursday that his “mission will be to reaffirm” those safeguards.

He noted that he first worked in the department in 1979 as an assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti. He later became a federal prosecutor and, during the Clinton administration, he served as a senior official in the Department of Justice.

Garland referred on Thursday to Biden’s promise that he would have “independent ability” to decide who is subject to prosecution, based on the facts and the law.

Garland said, “I would not have agreed to be considered attorney general under any other conditions.”

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